Scott boosts TV spending to $3M with new Spanish-language ad

Gov. Rick Scott’s campaign is dropping $1 million on a Spanish-language television ad, increasing the overall TV tab for his newly minted Senate campaign to $3 million, an eye-popping figure this early in the election cycle.

Scott’s campaign earlier put $2 million behind a statewide ad focused on his push for federal term limits, which has been his campaign’s only early policy push. That initial spending is now being bolstered by $1 million behind a not-yet-released Spanish-language ad in the Miami, Tampa and Orlando media markets.

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The onslaught of cash from Scott, who has officially been in the race since just April 9, mirrors his first campaign for governor in 2010. That year Scott was a political unknown, but spent heavily on television ads to boost his name identification and image with Republican primary voters.

Scott this time is a well-known governor with no primary opponent but appears ready to once again try to swamp his opponent with a series of 30-second ads in the expensive markets that make up Florida’s media landscape.

Scott’s current spending pace puts him ahead of 2010. Through roughly the same point that election cycle, Scott had reserved roughly $1.5 million in airtime, half of the amount his campaign has already spent this year.

The move highlights one of the reasons Scott is so hard to beat. In 2010 he used $70 million of his own cash to fund the ads, and the early TV onslaught seems to be following a similar path.

Scott has not yet released his first campaign finance report, but it seems likely that he is using his personal wealth to jump-start his Senate campaign. Scott announced the $2 million in ad buys just one week after getting in the race. Under that timeline, Scott would have had to raise more than $2 million in less than a week, a monumental task for a federal campaign that is limited to $2,700 individual contributions.

Sen. Bill Nelson, for instance, reported a $3.2 million first-quarter cash haul. It was one of the biggest in Nelson’s three terms in office and came over a three-month period, underscoring the fact that raising millions in federal money can be a difficult task.